In the year 2010, Istanbul will be the European Capital of Culture. While the focus of the celebration’s accompanying program is primarily concerned with the historic city center, the interdisciplinary program “New Cultural Agencies” designs models for the development of a cultural infrastructure for Istanbul’s peripheries and outskirts, the former so-called Gecekondu areas. Over the years, the informal, improvised structures to appear in these peripheries were created with protagonists (“agencies”) which try to compensate in part for missing public institutions.

The project fosters an intensive exchange between international students, artists, curators, architects, and Istanbul’s cultural institutions as well as local communities in order to mutually develop initiatives for the future of these peripheries.

The project is structured in the following phases:

During an intensive two-week work phase of field research, art, architecture and sociology students from the Mimar Sinan University and Städlschule Frankfurt analyze selected peripheries of Istanbul. The students investigate the existing structures and identify spaces for possible initiatives.

In an exchange with creative specialists and representatives of local communities, the project participants discuss the results of their field work in order to fathom approaches for new cultural projects and ‘public spaces’. New Cultural Agencies intends to stimulate in Istanbul a broadly structured debate, which reflects on the role of cultural institutions in connection with urban-geographical transformations.

During the next phase, project groups consisting of students, artists and/or architects are formed. These groups plan concrete initiatives in the peripheries, and the project work’s interim findings are presented at the Istanbul Biennial. The collaborators’ self-produced guidebook on the selected peripheries summarizes the results of the field research and project work for the biennial visitors.

In the selected peripheries, the project groups implement their plans in the framework of the 2010 Capital of Culture activities.

The Platform Garanti in Istanbul acts first and foremost as a catalyst between artists and curators for promoting the dissemination of contemporary art. The Garanti Gallery is the first institution in Istanbul to focus exclusively on contemporary art and design, and its exhibitions examine the multifaceted cultural influences in the metropolis. In the middle of 2009 the two institutions will be consolidated in a new complex. The Minar Sinan University of Fine Arts and the Städelschule Frankfurt are among the leading international art and architecture academies.